Living on a Few Memories
by raydoesminecraft
Summary: Rachael had the perfect popular life, besides for the fact that she secretly plays Minecraft. But when a new boy comes into her story, her whole outcome will be changed. BajanCanadianxOC.
1. The New Guy

**New series! So many of you like Alone in the Wild, so I decided why not do something a little different. This is like most of the YoutuberxOC stories, but it's got a little twist. Hope you like it!**

To introduce myself first, my name is Rachael Anderson, but I prefer Ray as a nickname. I am currently 20 years old, but this story is not about my current life. My senior year in high school, when I was in the midst of my 18th birthday, caused the most drama with my social experiences.

I had everything. The most popular friends, the hottest guy in school as my boyfriend, great grades, and an accepted application to the University of Los Angeles, or UCLA. But he changed everything.

It was just another normal day. Summer was getting closer. Since the weather was nice and sunny, I wore a blue strapless blouse and white shorts. My three inch silver high heels glimmered in the light coming from outside. Long silky brown hair hung from my head, occasionally fixing it myself from time to time. My brown eyes sparkled in the light from my shoes. Whenever I answered a question, it was easy for all the eyes of the boys to get a glance of me because I sat in the middle of the classroom. In the duration of class, a loudspeaker went off.

"Hello students. This is your principal speaking. Since the end of school is only two months away, we have to choose the awards for our seniors." My class cheered. "Come to my office for an application for valedictorian sign-ups. Remember, prom is coming up as well, so get prepared. Tickets will be sold at the student store for ninety dollars each. That is all for now. Have a good day." The speaker's sound system popped, causing the students to cover their ears in pain. Once the pain disappeared, the history teacher, Ms. Rudolph, continued scribbling notes on the board using her piece of white chalk. All of the sudden, a familiar boy walked through the door. The boy had dirty blond hair and brown eyes. He wore a red, brown, and white plaid jacket over a white T-shirt with blue jeans. Black sneakers were tied on his feet.

I had a hidden identity. For the girly-girl I was, I loved playing _Minecraft. _It was a distraction from the popular life that I had. Hours at a time, I played with friends that I met online. I didn't tell them where I was from, or who I was, except my name. The name I used: SuperSmashRay.

"Oh…" Ms. Rudolph took a look at the boy at the door, "I see you've finally found your way to class." She waltzed over to him and pointed to the seat right next to me. It was the only empty one, so my bad luck was inevitable. The boy, who I did not yet know the name of, shot looks around the room and took the seat next to me.

He saw me in the seat over and started whispering, "Hi. I'm Mitch."

I didn't respond.

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

"No. I'm trying to pay attention. So please stop talking."

Ms. Rudolph caught me and Mitch chatting, "Ms. Anderson. Mr. Hughes. Detention. And by the way, welcome to the school." I groaned and returned taking notes on the differences between liberals and conservatives.

Later that day, I made my way to the detention room. I noticed Mitch and another boy who I did not recognize teasing each other by softly punching each other's arms. Rolling my eyes, I glared down at my phone to see a text from my boyfriend, Caleb.

"Hey, you gonna meet up with the group tonight for the football game?" he asked.

I replied, "No. Got stuck in detention because of the new guy. But I'll see you later, okay?"

Since he was a quick typer, Caleb responded within a minute, "If you want, I can come and beat up the guy for you."

"No, it's okay. I can deal with it. XOXO."

"Love ya."

I turned off my phone and opened the door to detention. All the kids were either standing and messing with the teacher's whiteboard or throwing paper airplanes. The girls gossiped and passed notes around with which girl went well with each guy. I absolutely despised that, although I was the most popular girl in the senior class. As soon as I sat down in a front seat, Mitch and his friend entered. They went towards the back of the room. I sighed in relief, but my troubles were not over.

"I didn't expect you to be in detention, little miss perfect," a voice behind me called out.

"Shut up, Ty." Ty was one of the lower-status boys who did not like me _at all_. If I complete one thing wrong, he and his friends Jason and Adam would tease me about it.

"What'd you do wrong this time?" Jason sarcastically asked. He turned to Adam, "Maybe she made out with Caleb in the girls bathroom and one of the teachers finally found out."

"Ha ha! You're probably right," Adam agreed, laughing.

Angrily, I spun around in my seat and eyed the three boys fooling around, "Just shut up. I was not with Caleb."

"Oh… so it was another guy?" Adam queried.

"Ooh!" Ty and Jason yelled at the same time. I tried to ignore them but Ty led the boys to the front of my desk. They noticed me pouting with my arms crossed. Ty came closer to me and attempted to kiss me. I pushed him away.

"Hey!" Another voice overrode the rest, "Leave her alone."

"Oh yeah. What you gonna do about it," Ty questioned the voice.

"It was my fault that she's in detention. I'm Mitch. I'm new to the school. I talked to her during class and we got caught. Isn't that right?" A bit scared, I nodded. Ty growled and took Adam and Jason back to their former desks. I watched them walk away in relief.

Mitch and his friend slowly advanced to my desk. They sat in the ones next to me.

"Thanks," I told him, still not looking directly at him.

"This is Jerome. He was my buddy at my old school. We transferred together."

"Good for you."

"Can I get your name?"

"Rachael."

"Pretty name."

"Thank you," I kept my eyes on the chalkboard.

"You're welcome," Mitch replied.

"So, when are we gonna record some more Hunger Games?" Jerome begged his buddy.

"I don't know. In all honesty, I think we should invite Mat or someone from the other school to…"

"Are you talking about the movie Hunger Games or something else?" I knew what the Hunger Games were but I didn't want to reveal my Minecraft interest.

"Oh, not the movie," Mitch answered, "See, we're Youtubers."

"We record videos of us playing Minecraft and then post them onto our channels. We each have over a million subscribers," Jerome continued.

"A million isn't bad," I said, "Not bad at all."

"Do you play or watch Minecraft?"

I finally faced the boys and lied, "No. I don't. Not that type of girl. Do girls even pay attention to that game?"

"Yeah. A lot of our subs are girls," Mitch told me.

"Alright then."

I got to look at Jerome for the first time. He had short blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore a navy blue T-shirt with baggy black jeans and dark grey tennis shoes. All I did was smile and turn back to face the board.

"I can always introduce you to the game if you want…"

I quickly snapped at him, "No. No thanks."

Mitch glanced back at Jerome and shrugged his shoulders.

**Sorry if I offended any deadlox, MinecraftUniverse, or Skydoesminecraft fans, but I promise you, they'll get out of their bad habits. And I never break promises. And they're all around 18/19 years old, for story purposes.**


	2. A Strange Hunger Games

Later that night, I returned home and logged onto my computer. I pulled up Minecraft and signed into my account. I reviewed my skin: the girl version of Desmond Miles from the Assassin's Creed video games. Beginning the Survival Games, I glanced around at my opponents. There were about three business suit baccas; one human guy with brown hair, a plaid red and white shirt, and blue pants; one person with a skin like a football player with orange, dark red, grey, and blue eyes; another human guy with black sunglasses, an outfit made out of three shades of black and grey, and a necklace with a gold exterior and red on the inside; and one other human with brown hair covering one of his reddish brown eyes, a black and green headset, and a white T-shirt and grey pants. Countdown ended and I rushed mid. Opening a chest, I found a stone sword and chain boots but only got the sword. I noticed that one of the baccas stole the boots and I raced after him with my sword. Before I caught up with him, the bacca met up with two others, the guy with the plaid shirt and the football-player guy. I just stood there, recognizing the names of the players: BajanCanadian, ASFJerome, and NoochM.

Nooch looked behind him and spotted me. He started to run at me with a wooden axe but turned around when he saw that I held a stone sword, that he thought I had a iron sword. He quickly typed into chat.

"Wanna team?" he asked.

"Are you referring to me?" I replied.

"Yeah."

"Oh… sure."

Jerome led Bajan and Nooch to an area of forestry filled with empty chests. They gave me chain and iron armor, which I thought was nice, and I showed them that the sword wasn't iron.

"Sorry guys. I think you thought it was iron but it's only stone. Hope we can still team," I told the guys in the chat.

"It's okay," Bajan was the one to type this in, "Are you a Youtuber? Your username seems familiar."

"No. I want to get one though and only posts videos of this game, but I haven't been able to yet."

"Maybe we can connect you to the Skype call and help you out on this problem."

"Oh my god," I thought to myself, "A Skype call with famous Youtubers?! This is great!" I returned to the game, "Sure. What's your Skype?"

Bajan, Jerome, Nooch, and I disconnected from the game and I joined the Skype call with ease.

"Hi there. I'm Mitch," Bajan told me. I paused my thoughts. Is this _the_ Mitch that I just met in school this morning.

"It couldn't be," I told myself, turning off the headphones on my head. I shrugged and continued in with the call.

"I'm Ray," I said.

"Your voice seems familiar," Jerome commented, "Do I know you from somewhere?"

"No… not that I know of."

"Well then," Nooch, aka Mat, continued, "Hold on a second. Adam and Ty want to join."

"Okay, we'll add them to the call." We were silent for a minute or so while Mitch typed on his keyboard.

"Wait a minute… Adam and Ty… do you mean SkythekidRS and deadlox?" I asked the guys.

"Yeah," Jerome replied.

"Hey what's up!" I heard Adam yell through the call. This voice I recognized.

"Nothing much. Just playing some Hunger Games. I found a new recruit. She wants to get a Youtube channel and I told her that I would help," Mitch told them.

"Cool. Is she on with us?" Ty calmly investigated. I recognized his voice as well.

"Yep."

"Hey there," Adam said. His voice was so much brighter and happier than I had known at school.

I tried to get out my words, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't reveal who I was, especially to them.

"Join my server!" Mitch nonchalantly commanded us once he realized I wasn't talking. I found The Fridge easily and joined.

"How about SG 15?" Jerome asked.

"Okay," Ty responded and we clicked into game 15. The map was on a ski resort.

"I know this one," Mitch said, "Follow me."

As a team, the six of us ran around the map looking for chests and killing off other people that we saw. Eventually we were the only ones left.

"Ray, do you want to surrender or fight us?" Mitch carefully questioned.

I bit my lip and typed into the chat instead, "No surrendering!"

"Why'd you do chat? I know you can talk," Jerome asserted.

"I'm not surrendering," I finally responded, "Fight me… or are you sexist?"

"Never!" Jerome's bacca ran at me and I used my iron sword as quickly as I could. Surprisingly, I was able to defeat him with only a couple hits.

"Anyone else? Hmm?" I started to create a big grin on my face.

"Yeah," Mat tried to defend himself from my attacks, but again I amazingly defeated him as well.

"Wow," Ty declared, "She's good." I smirked and faced Adam.

"You're next," I told him.

"What?!" Within four hits and a quarter of my hearts gone, Adam was also defeated, "What the heck?"

At that moment, I realized that death match already started its countdown. In thirty seconds, I had killed Adam.

"Oops." I sarcastically smiled.

"Dammit. Ty, you had better win."

"Got it," Ty replied to Adam's plea.

The game transported Mitch, Ty, and I to the map's spawn for death match. There was a ten second delay before we could start killing each other so I quickly sorted my inventory. Once the delay ended, I noticed Mitch rush at Ty and knock him out three hearts. Not to my surprise… he was using Betty, the diamond axe. Somehow he had gotten three diamonds and a stick and crafted an axe.

"Go Mitch!" Jerome screamed through the Skype call. As soon as he said that, Ty had been slain.

"So it's just you and me," Mitch said, "And guess who's gonna win."

I had gut instincts to attack him but it didn't seem fair. He was so popular and if he were to upload this episode onto Youtube, his reputation might or might not go down the toilet.

"Come at me," I told him.

"What?"

"You can kill me. I won't attack."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Mitch rushed me and without thinking, I switched to my iron sword and annihilated him. I ended up the winner of the round.

"You said…"

"I'm sorry. I couldn't help it. I…"

"You sound awfully familiar," Ty mentioned.

"Uh… I don't know you previously to this."

"What's your name?"

"Ray… why?"

"Is it your real name or…"

"Ty, stop bothering her about it," Mitch interrupted. He expelled Ty and Adam from the Skype call.

I sent a personal chat message to Mitch. "Thank you."

He replied quickly, "No problem."

**Did you like it? What should happen next? Let me know!**


	3. The Birthday

The next day at school was not as bad as I thought.

Classes were normal, except cheer. I pulled on my uniform and went out to the field, expecting there to be practice. Instead I found a group of my friends and football players lined up on the grass holding a large banner reading, "Happy 18th Birthday Rachael!"

"Happy birthday Rachael!" they all cheered.

"Oh my god. Thank you!" I jumped up and down with excitement. Spotting Caleb with his neck-length blond hair and football uniform, I raced over to him and gave him the biggest hug that I've ever given anyone, "Did you do this?"

"I want to say yes, but I didn't plan this. We found the banner and the blow horns in my locker. It was an anonymous donation."

"Well, if you find out who it is, I want to thank them."

"And better yet, Sarah and I are taking you out to dinner at the Luxembourg Cafe."

"Oh, _fancy_."

"So put on your best outfit," Caleb was tapped on the shoulder by his friend Bryce, "We have to go to practice. I'll see you at 8."

"Okay! Love you."

"Me too!" he yelled as he was being pulled off by Bryce and two other players.

I ran to join the other cheerleaders, who had been beginning practice while I talked with Caleb.

"So… how was detention?" my senior friend Brittany asked. She had long blonde hair, usually kept in a high ponytail, and was co-captain of the cheer squad. I was the other captain.

"How'd you find out?"

"Ty. He told everyone," she groaned.

"Ugh. Well, it was fine. I only had to stay for an hour. Others had to stay for more."

"You don't have to practice today. The girls told me they thought you needed a well-deserved break. Just gotta stay at school."

"Sure. No problem."

Brittany shrugged and returned to meet with the cheerleaders. She started to show them a new routine.

I changed into my school clothes: a three-quartered sleeved T-shirt, a navy blue skirt with pink polka dots, black leggings, a gray scarf around my neck, and black heels. Once back on the field, I found a wooden bench and sat down. Glancing to my right, I noticed Mitch reading through a history textbook.

"Hey," I said. He cast a glance toward me, stood up, and took a seat next to me.

"You're finally saying something," he joked. I laughed. He continued, "You have a nice laugh."

I blushed and pulled back my hair from going into my eye, "Thanks."

"No problem."

We were quiet for a minute or so until Mitch interrupted the silence.

"I met this girl online last night. She was playing Minecraft. Jerome, my friend Mat, and I invited her to our Skype chat. She's really good. You have to see. I'm even posting that video on Youtube. Amazing."

"Good for you."

"She reminded me of you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Same tough personality but sweet inside. If I had only gotten to know her better. I think… I may like her."

I scratched the back of my head in hope of something to say. Not finding anything, I stayed quiet. I put both of my hands in my lap, wishing for an event to occur.

"Happy birthday," Mitch remarked. He pulled out a small velvet box from his jean pocket and gave it to me. I opened the box to find a silver necklace with my name in-scripted on it.

"Wow. Mitch, it's beautiful."

"Do you want to put it on?"

"Sure." I took off my scarf and stuffed it into my backpack. He helped me carefully secure the necklace from the box and put it around my neck. He latched the hook on the back. I smiled.

"How do you like it?"

"I don't know what to say. But… why? I was being so rude to you the other day."

"Rachael, I figured out it was you last night. I promise that I won't tell _anyone_, for the sake of your reputation."

"So, that means… you like me?"

Mitch shrugged, "You're so… beautiful and popular. And you already have a boyfriend. I thought that getting you this and an anonymous donation to Caleb would help."

"That was you? With the banner and the blow horns?"

He nodded. Without thought, I hugged him.

"Thank you," I reminded him, "It means a lot."

Mitch got up from the bench and glanced around the field. He spotted a car off in the distance, "Jerome's picking me up. Drove home today and had him bring me here."

"You left and then came back just to give this to me?"

"Yeah. I hope that's not too creepy…"

"No. Of course not. It's actually really sweet."

Mitch smiled and grabbed his backpack. He made his way to Jerome's car. I watched him leave and waved as he entered the car. He waved back.

For the next five minutes, I remained on the bench, thinking about Mitch and his present. Caleb never had given me that type of gift. It was so _heartfelt_. I may mutually like him…

I was interrupted by Ty, Adam, and Jason yelling on the field. Ty was leading a rally. He had a hand-held speaker and shouted through it.

"Those of you who despise the popular clique taking over our lives, join us! For those of you who despise school politics and want the lower-status kids to take over, join us! We will be known as the Clique Meisters and rule the school! Long live the…" Ty was stopped by five members of the football team, including Caleb, who pulled him off the hill. While Caleb pushed Ty onto the ground, his other buddies messed around with Adam and Jason. Although I hated those three boys, leaving them like that felt so wrong.

"Caleb!" I raced over to where the football players tackled the boys, "Leave them alone!"

My boyfriend glanced up at me, "Don't they tease you everyday? They deserve it!" Caleb advanced to punch Ty in the face but I held back his muscular fist.

"Don't… please… I shouldn't remember you for this."

Caleb growled and continued to punch Ty. Afterwards, he stood up motioned for the players to leave, and left all three with bloody noses and black eyes.

Furious, I took tissues out of my backpack and kneeled down to help Ty.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Why are you helping me?"

"What he did was wrong. You didn't deserve to be treated that way."

"Thanks."

I smiled and grasped more tissues. I gave these to Adam and Jason. The boys took them with gratitude.

"You're the only one who helped us. I don't see anyone else around," Jason mentioned.

"That's because I'm the only one who cares about moral value."

"Thank you Ray..." Adam started to say and then coughed in the middle of my name. I glanced around for someone else to support the boys so I could leave. But no one volunteered. A few minutes later, the nurse was called outside and took the boys into the school. I rose from the grass and leaned against a nearby tree, closing my eyes and knowing that I did right.

**I hope you liked this chapter!**

**I have a question for those who are reading:**

**Who do you think Rachael should end up with?**

**1) Caleb - He's been her boyfriend for over a year. His intentions, though, may be a little different from what she expects.**

**2) Mitch - She's only just met him, but he's the nicest guy that she has ever known.**

**3) Ty - He may be a bully, but deep inside, he could have feelings for her.**


	4. King of the Ladder!

That night, I logged back onto Minecraft and called Mitch on Skype. Two minutes later, he joined the call.

"Hey Ray," Mitch said, "What's new? Ready to play Hunger Games?"

"Caleb beat up Ty, Adam, and Jason today."

He paused. "What?"

"Ty was doing this rally thing and then the football players just came over and…" I started to get tears in my eyes and sniff to hold them back.

"Do you want to me to come over to your place? To meet in person?"

"No, it's fine."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Do you not want to play Hunger Games then? A different game maybe?"

"I was thinking… King of the ladder."

"Should I invite Jerome and Mat?"

"Okay."

A few minutes later, Jerome joined, "Are we doing this or what, Benj?"

"Yeah, dood. We are. Hold on."

"Is Mat coming?"

"No… he told me he had school stuff, so I won't bother him."

"What about Jordan? Or Quentin? Or Ty? Or Adam?"

"Jerome. Don't mention them."

"Who? Adam? Ty?"

"Yeah."

I stopped their conversation, "You don't have to do that, Mitch. It's fine if we let one of them join."

"Ray? You're on with us?" Jerome asked.

"Yep," I replied, "We're gonna play King of the ladder."

"Awesome. Who's gonna be our fourth player?"

"I'm checking for who's online," Mitch told us, "Adam. Is it okay…?"

"Yeah. It'll be fun," I answered. He joined our call.

"Hi guys! I heard we're playing King of the ladder. Who's with us?"

"It's you, me, Jerome, and Ray."

"That girl from last night that beat us at the Hunger Games?"

"You do know that I'm in the call right?" I mentioned.

"Uh… yeah. How would I not?" Adam sarcastically implied, his voice shaking a bit.

"Are we gonna start the game?" Jerome asked.

"Join this server," Mitch notified us to open a link. We easily found the King of the ladder server and chose our teams. It was a free-for-all, with me being blue, Jerome being red, Mitch being green, and Adam being yellow.

"Three, two, one," Mitch announced, "Hey doods. It's Bajan and I'm here with Sky, Jerome, and SuperSmashRay. We're doing King of the Ladder..."

"And if you don't know what King of the Ladder is, then you should definitely catch up. On everything," Jerome joked.

"You guys!" I laughed, "All I want to do is win this and brag about it to everyone."

"Oh no she didn't!"

"Yes I did!"

"You're going down!" Adam yelled and ran to the ladder. Mitch, Jerome, and I gasped.

I quickly ran to a chest on my right and grabbed a fishing rod, steaks, and a wooden sword. Everyone else besides Adam did the same. We all rushed the ladder.

"You started too early!" Mitch yelped, "We were supposed to take the stuff from the chests on _go_."

"I wanted to get a head start, so I can win!"

We all laughed and continued with the game. Jerome was the first to get to the top.

"I'm King of the ladder!" he screamed. I knocked him down with my fishing rod.

"No you don't, bacca!"

"Hey! I'll get you back!"

"Ha ha! As if!" Adam was the one to push me off the top, "Uh… what color am I again?"

"Aren't you yellow?" Mitch reminded him, "As in chicken nugget budder?"

"Oh yeah! That's right." He pressed the yellow button.

"Why'd you tell him?" I jokingly inquired, "You ruined my chance to win!"

"Not quite." At this moment, Mitch blew Adam off the top and caused him to hit the ground and lose a life. Mitch pressed the green button.

"Dammit!" Adam wailed. Back in the yellow spawn area, he put the same items in his inventory. Meanwhile, Jerome and I were having a one-on-one fishing rod battle.

"You think since your name is Super Smash Ray, you can super smash me into the ground."

"Yep." I replied.

"Ah ha!" Jerome managed to make me drop onto the ground. I lost a life and ended back up in the blue spawn area.

"What's the life count?" Mitch asked.

"I have two, Ray has two, Jerome has all three, and you will have two!" Adam declared.

"What?" Mitch was pushed off the top of the ladder by Adam and ended up losing one of his lives.

"Ha ha! Got you there!" Adam shouted. He pressed the yellow button.

"This game is never going to end!" I said, climbing up the ladder.

"It actually ends quicker than you think," Mitch told me, "Most of the time, no one wins the game, only by other people losing all their lives."

"I see."

After five minutes more of pressing buttons and losing lives, it was me and Adam with one life each, and Jerome with two. Mitch had been disqualified because of depleting the rest of his lives. All of us were on the ladder, attempting to hit each other off. Adam finally fell.

"Man!" Adam announced, "I was so close!"

"Ha ha!" Jerome announced, "I will win! Timer's almost up! Bacca will be victorious!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it." I knocked off Jerome with my fishing rod.

"I still have one life left."

"I know." Before he even reached the ladder, I climbed to the top and pressed the blue button, "See who'll be victorious now! Maybe my super smash will work!"

"Can't believe you were doubting it at first," Adam commented, "You beat us at the Hunger Games. It was pure luck."

As I was busy listening to Adam, Jerome had made his way to the top of the ladder and boosted me off. I landed hard on the ground and lost all my items.

"Yeah! Bacca's the winner!" Jerome announced.

"But none of that counts," Mitch told us, "Cause we gonna do sumotori!"

"Sumotori!"

I burst out laughing because the boys were being so crazy, "I'm going to win this one though. Jerome is the first one to go!"

Once the budder sumotori arena was built, we switched out of creative mode back into survival. Adam got thrown off first, then me, leaving Mitch and Jerome.

"Oh buddy!" Jerome tried to get a hit on Mitch. I watched from the side of the arena. Adam's character flew next to me, "This should be good!"

"But… Jerome," Mitch begun.

"Yeah?"

"I'm the winner."

"Huh?" Jerome was flung off the sumotori arena with only a few hits from Mitch.

"The loser comes out a winner!" Adam declared.

"Well, thanks for watching. Check out Sky and Jerome in the link down below. Make sure to slap that like button with yo forehead! Ba bye!" Mitch, Jerome, and Adam stopped their recordings.

"I gotta go," Mitch continued off camera, "I'll see you tomorrow, Ray."

"Tomorrow?" Adam questioned.

"Yeah," I explained, "I'm gonna do another Hunger Games with Mitch tomorrow night. We've already planned it."

"Oh, okay. I'll see you!" Adam logged himself out of the chat.

"I'll see you at school Benja," Jerome told Mitch.

"Yep," he replied, "I'll see ya." Jerome logged himself out of the chat a few moments later. Mitch then continued to talk to me, "Goodnight Ray."

"Goodnight Mitch." Smiling, I logged out, shutting down the call.

**This chapter was just a little bit of fun before the _real_ drama begins. Hope you liked it!**


	5. Graveyard

I woke up to my alarm clock going off. 7:15 am.

"I'm gonna be late," I thought. I hurried to put on my clothes for school: a grey tank top under a thin white blouse rolled up to my elbows, tight blue jeans and brown cowboy boots going up to the middle of my thighs. Around my neck I wore Mitch's necklace. After brushing my teeth and brushing my hair, I grabbed my black book bag of a backpack and hurried downstairs into the entryway. I opened the door to see Caleb standing on my porch. He wore a green T-shirt and baggy blue jeans. Loose leather bracelets hung around his wrists.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

"I'm taking the shortcut today," I quickly told him, rushing down the porch steps.

"Why?"

"We're gonna be late."

"No, it's late start cause there's a teacher meeting… Do you really want to get to school early?"

"Maybe."

Caleb noticed my necklace and ran to catch up with me, "Where'd you get that?"

"Get what?"

"The necklace."

I paused. "Oh, yeah. Brittany gave it to me. Birthday present." As I advanced to continue walking, Caleb pulled me back.

"Why would Brittany give you that?"

"Huh?"

"Why would she give you it?"

"She's my friend. Don't be so in-my-face!" I pushed him away and sped up my pace. With no intentions on looking back, I carefully walked into the cemetery that laid a few blocks from the school. This path was considered "the shortcut."

I tiptoed through the mud and past the gloomy graves. Everything in that area seemed so creepy, but I just wanted to stay as far away from Caleb as I could. At every moment, I was afraid that something would jump out and scare me.

I glared down at my iPhone. 7:30. I thought to myself, "I have an hour. Don't worry, Rachael. Don't worry."

"Rawr!" a voice shrieked through the mist. I screamed.

"Ha ha!" Ty and Jason popped out from the trees, "Caught you there!"

"Can you not do that again?!" I panted and stared with wide eyes, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Eighteen year old girls don't get heart attacks," Jason mentioned, "It's only old people, like Ms. Rudolph." Ty burst out laughing.

"This is not funny. Now, if you could just let me pass…"

"No way," Ty told me, "If I let you leave the graveyard, you have to hold my hand on the way to school."

"Why?" I glared at him in disgust.

"Cause… I want everyone to know that you're dumping Caleb for me." Ty smirked.

"No way! And even if I was going to dump Caleb, it wouldn't be for you."

"Have it your own way." Ty motioned for Jason to grab my arm.

"Let go of me!"

"Just say yes. Just say _yes_."

"Ty," Jason asked, "Where's Adam?"

"Does it matter? We're better off without him…"

"What did you say?" Adam peeked out from across the boys.

"Uh… no… nothing. He said nothing," Jason stuttered, "Ty… let's go."

"I'm not leaving without her!" Ty announced. Jason, shaking, let his arm leave mine and pushed me towards Ty.

"You deal with her!" he panicked and ran over to Adam's side, "I don't want to listen to you anymore!"

"Okay," Ty groaned and took me by the hand,"We're leaving."

"_Just let me go_!" I yelled. Furious, I stepped on his foot and raced towards the school, trying to keep my book bag on my shoulder.

"See what you did Jason!" I heard Ty scream from behind me.

Noticing the front lawn to the school in my clear vision, I hurried up the steps to the front door. Once I reached the door, I quickly opened it and paced to my locker, all the blood rushing to my head.

Calming down, I revealed the inside of my locker and let out all my breath. I took out the textbooks I needed for class and checked the mirror hanging on the right side of the locker. Fixing my hair and using a tissue to dry the sweat from my face, I shut the locker. I looked down at my iPhone once again and saw the time. 8:00. Perfect. I had ten minutes to get across the hall to history class.

I entered class and took my seat. There were only two people sitting in their desk besides me. To speed up time, I glanced through the pages of the upcoming test.

"Hi." I looked up from my textbook to see Mitch standing over me, a smile on his face.

"Hey," I replied, "What's new?"

"Studying. For the test next week."

"Me too. Got here early, so why not?"

"I know, right." He sat down at his desk and opened his book to the same page as mine, "You seem a little shaky. Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. I'm fine."

Ms. Rudolph finally entered class, "Students, take your seats." Everyone sat down at her request. Her voice seemed scratchier than usual. She coughed and took a tissue from her desk, "Today, we will not be doing a lesson. This means that the test will postponed to next Tuesday instead of Monday." The students cheered. "But… today, since I am not feeling so well, I will let you ask your date to the prom." The cheering increased dramatically. Students begin the bang on their desks. Ms. Rudolph continued her coughing so she could not calm down the class.

"Listen up," Mitch yelled and stood up on his chair," If you want to ask your date to the prom, do it. But don't get crazy or else you'll drive the teachers mad. And for those who don't have a date, stay here and be productive!" The class was silent, listening quietly to Mitch's speech, "Good." He hurriedly sat down. Five boys with balloons and flowers exited the class into the hallways. Girls waited for their dates to ask them. Meanwhile, I sat at my desk, not expecting anything to happen.

"Rachael," Mitch bravely recited, standing up in front of me, "Will you go to prom with me?" The rest of the class looked on from behind us.

"Uh…" I panicked, "I don't know. I mean… yes. Yes, I will go to prom with you Mitch." I stood up and kissed him. Mitch even took this as a surprise, but he liked it. I could tell.

**Maybe this changes your mind about who she should end up with.**


	6. Bad News

Later that day, I met up with my best friend Sarah at cheer practice. She had bob-cut black hair and hazel eyes. She sometimes reminded me of a mouse. But I had to admit that she was the best on the team, besides her addiction to constantly bother me about the smallest things. It was a friendly type of bother though. I knew that Sarah would never do anything to hurt me in any way.

"Why didn't you make it to your own birthday dinner the other night," she interrogated.

"I was busy," I told her.

"With what?"

"Nothing too important."

Sarah groaned and stared at me. It scared me a bit, "Come tonight. To Luxembourg. We'll have a belated party. Okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." I placed my pompoms on the bench and sat down. Sarah advanced to sit next to me.

"Are you not with Caleb anymore?"

"What do you mean?"

"I heard the new guy asked you to prom. You said yes."

"It's true. Don't tell him though."

"What if I do?"

"I'm not coming to Luxembourg." I stared her in the eyes, determined at getting what I wanted.

"Fine. Be there at eight. _Sharp_."

"I promise."

After practice, I got home and ran upstairs into my bedroom. Nervous, I fiercely opened my closet and sorted through all five of my dresses. Finally I found a short turquoise and creme colored strapless dress with a blue sash running around the waist.

"Perfect," I thought to myself.

I quickly put on my makeup as fast as I could and powered my cheeks for extra color.

As I slipped on the dress, my iPhone buzzed like crazy. It was a call from Mitch. I picked up the phone with a smile and put it on speakerphone as I finished prepping.

"Hi," I told him as I hooked the back of my _Rachael_ necklace.

"Are you gonna be on Minecraft tonight? I was thinking of doing a Hunger Games, just the two of us."

"Oh," I paused, " I can't. Going out to dinner with some friends."

"It's okay. Tomorrow?"

"Definitely!"

"Where are you going for dinner?"

"Luxembourg Cafe. It's one of those fancy places. Sarah was supposed to take me last night but… I was playing King of the ladder with you guys."

"You told her that it was an accident right?"

"She can't know that I play. I lied."

"Well, nothing you can do about it now. See you at school?"

"Yeah." I took a last glance in the mirror before grabbing my purse and iPhone, "Bye."

"Bye." Mitch didn't seem to want to hang up.

Thirty seconds went by. Bored, I turned the call off of speaker and put it up to my ear, "Come on. Hang up already."

"Not until you get to the Cafe," Mitch joked.

"Very funny."

"I have a surprise for you."

"You do?"

"Yeah…" He stopped in the middle of his sentence.

"What's wrong?" Mitch didn't reply, "Mitch! What's wrong?"

I drove as fast as I could to the Luxembourg Cafe. As I pulled up, I noticed Mitch sitting on a bench with a bouquet of flowers. I rushed out of the car with my purse and ran to his side. He seemed gloomy and looked down at his shoes.

"Mitch… What happened?" I slowly sat down next to him.

"I saw Caleb."

"He was supposed to be here…"

"He was with Sarah."

"And…?"

"They were kissing."

"What?"

"They mentioned that they had been dating for the past three months without you knowing. Caleb was planning to break up with you tonight. He knows that I asked you to prom."

"What's with the flowers?"

"Wanted to surprise you and then quickly leave before anyone saw. It's too late. I've messed up everything for you."

"No. Not everything." I sympathetically looked at Mitch, "I have _you_."

"You really mean it?" He smiled at me.

"Yeah. You practically changed my life the moment I met you. I knew I wasn't going to be the same with you around."

Mitch leaned in closer to me and we kissed. This time he liked it more than the one in class because he made the first move. Even though I missed Caleb, for all the things that he had done to me, Ty, Adam, and Jason, never could make up for the good luck that Mitch brought that night.

What I had mentioned about Sarah earlier. _All lies_. I could never trust Sarah again.

Mitch drove me home in my car. He had walked from his house to the restaurant because he was only a few blocks away. We entered my house and hurried to my room. I laid on my bed while Mitch sat on the chair next to my desk. Tears of mascara fell from my face.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay for a little while more?" Mitch asked.

"Yep."

"We can play Minecraft."

"It's okay. You can leave."

Mitch shrugged and stood up from the chair, "Good night Ray. I can call you that, right?"

"Yeah. I actually prefer it that way."

"Why didn't you just say so?" Mitch joked. I didn't respond, "I'll leave now."

Mitch slowly walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. My iPhone buzzed yet again. I picked it up and put it to my ear.

"Hello?" I asked.

"It's Ty. I just want to…"

"No. You're the _last_ person I want to talk to right now."

"I wanted to apologize for this morning. I was being selfish and rude, especially to you. And I'm sorry. Sincerely sorry."

"Fine. I accept your apology but I have to go…"

"Do you want to go to prom with me?"

"What?"

"Do you?"

"I've already been asked… I thought you hated me."

"No, I would never. You're a girl! C'mon. I wouldn't be that mean to a girl."

"You were with me."

"Uh… maybe I should hang up…"

"Good idea."

Ty disconnected the call. Why would he have asked me to prom if he didn't like me? And shouldn't he have known that I was going with Mitch? I ignored Ty for the moment and logged onto Skype and noticed that Jerome was online. I called him up.

"Hey Ray," he said after hooking up his call with mine.

"There's something I have to tell you. Mitch already knows. Will you promise not to tell anyone?"

"In Benja we trust, in Bacca we must."


	7. Lunchtime with Ray

I had spent the whole night chatting with Jerome. I could tell why he was best buddies with Mitch. You could trust Jerome with everything and he would promise not to tell a soul. He was like my new best friend.

I finally logged off of Skype and said goodnight to Jerome. I glanced over at my alarm clock and noticed the time. 6:45. I had been up that long? I ignored it and got ready for school, without any sleep.

Half asleep, I walked to school in a long spaghetti-strapped sky blue cotton dress that went down to my knees. I wore black converse on my feet. My hair was only slightly brushed and it looked that I had gone days without sleep.

I arrived and noticed Caleb and Sarah, being a stereotypical couple. They glared over at me and Sarah paced over to my locker.

"I have to tell you something, Rachael," she told me, a frown on her face.

"What?" I asked, my eyelids almost falling off.

"You're cut from the cheer team."

My eyes blanked wide open and I stared into my locker mirror, trying to get my vision on Sarah without directly looking at her, "Why?"

"What do you think? You're going to prom with the new guy! And you just cheated on your boyfriend with him… the loser…"

"Loser?!" I shouted, "Mitch is not a loser, out of all things! I would rather get cut from the cheer team and be demoted from my status than lose him as a friend. Caleb was not worth anything and neither were you. And I play Minecraft. Yes, _Minecraft_. The_ loser_ game. I play it with my _real_ friends: Mitch, Jerome, Ty, Adam, and Jason."

"Those losers are your friends? Make sure you clear out all of your stuff in the popular lodge before school ends. Rachael, you're done. Goodbye." Angry, Sarah strut back and flirted with Caleb yet again. I gave her an evil glare. No one could ignore my evil stare, not even Sarah. She winced but Caleb dared to challenge me. Instead of making trouble with him, I slammed my locker shut and ran off.

I finally reached Ms. Rudolph's class and immediately sat down in my seat, not taking notice to anyone, even Mitch. He shot worried looks at me, hoping that I would respond to something. I eventually did.

"I'm sorry for last night," I told him.

"It's okay. I realize that you were angry and you just needed some private time," he replied.

"I chatted with Jerome."

"You did?"

"He was online and so I… just spilled everything," Mitch didn't say anything else, so I continued, "Today I ran into Sarah. I told her about Minecraft. She cut me from the cheer team and demoted me from head popular. So much for trying to get Prom Queen."

"Who really cares about being Prom Queen or King? All that really matters is that you have a good time at the party."

"I suppose. I was just hoping on it."

"Well, you never know," Mitch smirked. I glanced at him with suspicion. There was something that he was going to do; I just didn't know what it was.

"I'm gonna start hanging out with you and Jerome more."

"Maybe you can meet Mat… we're going to lunch after school today. You wanna join us?"

"Sure." I smiled for the first time that day.

Later that day, Mitch and Jerome picked me up from my house and drove me over to a restaurant near their old school. Two boys our age were standing outside, waiting, probably for us. Mitch, Jerome, and I climbed out of the car and met up with the boys.

"Ray, this is Mat. Jordan, I didn't think you would show up," Mitch introduced me.

"You're Ray. As in _the_ Ray?" Mat questioned.

I nodded. He grinned.

"You're good," he commented, "At the Hunger Games."

"Well, thanks," I replied.

"And this is Jordan," Mitch pointed to the boy next to Mat. He waved.

"Hi. Nice to meet you." We shook hands.

"Glad to meet you too. I'm Rachael, but you can call me Ray."

"Got it."

Mitch, Jerome, Mat, Jordan, and I entered the restaurant and took our seats. I sat next to Jerome on the right and Jordan on the left. Mitch sat across from me, Mat to his right. A waitress I found familiar came to serve our table.

"Is there anything I can get you to drink?" she asked.

"Water," Jordan immediately spoke.

Mitch, Jerome, and Mat ordered Coca-Colas and I ordered iced tea.

"No one likes tea?" I queried. No one replied and they glanced over at each other, "I guess we're not doing small-talk." I glared down at my empty bread plate. The waitress brought over a basket of white bread and packets of butter.

"Oh," Jerome giggled, "Budder."

Jordan laughed, "Classic Jerome. I miss you already." Mitch laughed along.

"You know that we're only in the next town over. And we can always do Minecraft together," Mitch told him.

"So I heard you play Minecraft," Jordan commented to me.

"Yeah," I responded.

"And you beat Sky, Mat, Mitch, Jerome, and Ty. Professionals at the game…"

"Well I'm a pro too. I just don't post videos on Youtube about it."

"We're going to have to see about that," Jordan grinned. The waitress came back with our drinks.

"Are you ready to order?" she questioned again.

I ordered a Caesar salad, Jerome and Mitch ordered cheeseburgers, Mat ordered a plain hamburger, and Jordan ordered a steak. The food arrived within minutes.

"All of you are getting fatty meat while I have this healthy salad," I asserted.

"It's not fatty," Jerome stated with his mouth full of hamburger patty. I giggled at his failed attempt to speak. He finally swallowed, "Did Mitch and Ray tell you guys that he's going to prom with her?"

"No…" Mat replied, "He didn't."

"Jerome… you don't need to share personal matters," Mitch argued.

"It's fine," I assured him, "They can know. They're friends, right?" Jerome fiercely nodded.

"Okay," Mitch smirked, glanced over at me, and smiled. I sarcastically smiled right on back.

After we all finished eating, Mitch was kind enough to pay for everyone's meals and we exited the restaurant.

"Well, I'll see you later," Mat told everyone else, "I have to go."

We all went our separate ways: Mat and Jordan left in their own cars, and I jumped in with Jerome and Mitch.

"So…" I asked, "Are you gonna drop me off at my place or something?"

"Yeah," Mitch replied. Jerome turned up the speakers and realized the radio was playing "Cups." I started softly singing along, getting louder once towards the middle.

"I've got my ticket I got my ticket for the long way 'round. Two bottles of whiskey for the way. And I sure would like some sweet company. And I'm leaving tomorrow, wha do ya say? When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my hair. You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. I've got my ticket for the long way 'round. The one with the prettiest of views. It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers. But it sure would be prettier with you." Jerome and Mitch joined in with singing as well. "When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my walk. You're gonna miss me by my talk, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my hair. You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh. You're sure gonna miss me when I'm gone. When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my walk. You're gonna miss me by my talk, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone."


	8. Jerome's Situation

**This chapter isn't so dramatic as the past ones. It's only leading up to what will be the Chapter 10 special. That will be **_**epic**_**.**

Four days later, the school started decorating for prom. The student council hung up posters and kids begun voting for queen and king. I decided not to interfere with elections, since I knew I would be up against Sarah for the position. But the majority of the student body voted on who would be nominated, so I would never know until the party.

Two days before the dance, I scrolled through dresses on my phone. Sitting alone outside on a bench, I held my vegan vegetable wrap in one hand and the iPhone in the other. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Jerome come out of the cafeteria and sit down next to me.

"Have you asked anyone yet?" I asked him. He shook his head.

"No idea. I don't really know any of the girls in this school. They still think of me as the new kid," Jerome groaned, "And if I don't have a date and go to prom with you and Mitch, I'll look stupid."

I glanced up from my phone and landed my eye on Rebecca, a quiet, smart, and good-looking classmate of mine. She had long blond hair and blue eyes covered by rectangle-rimmed glasses. I grinned, "I have an idea." Standing up from the bench, I nonchalantly handed Jerome my wrap and stuffed my phone into the back pocket of my blue jeans. I made my way over to Rebecca and her group of friends. They weren't popular, so they didn't know about popular drama. Lucky me.

I tapped Rebecca on the shoulder. She spun around and faced me, but didn't say anything.

"Uh… hi," I begun, "I wanted to ask you if you could do a favor for me." Rebecca cautiously nodded. "Don't worry, it'll be for good." I looked back at Jerome and pointed to him. "See that guy over there?"

"Yeah…" Rebecca finally replied, "He's cute."

"Well, maybe he could ask you to prom. You don't have a date, right?"

"No… no guy would ask me."

"He would." I smirked, "Trust me."

"Okay." Rebecca smiled and slowly walked over to where Jerome sat on the bench. He had his head tilted towards his feet. She started talking to him and eventually they got to know each other well. I could tell by their hysterical laughter.

"My job here is done," I thought. Jerome took a bite of my wrap, making me chuckle. I jokingly shook my head and paced off in the other direction.

When I reached my locker, Ty was already there.

"What are you doing? You're standing right in front of my locker," I told him.

"I asked you to prom. You don't just say no."

"But… I'm going with someone else."

"Caleb?"

I shook my head, "We broke up the other day. He's with Sarah now."

"Then who?!"

"Mitch, for crying out loud." I stared at him, "Please move. I need to get into my locker."

"Okay, only if…"

"Not again," I rolled my eyes and tried to ignore him.

"You save a dance for me."

"Fine. Just go." Ty smiled and left. Once he was gone, I started to whisper to myself, "Can't he just face the facts? I don't like him."

Ty raced back up to me and kissed me. He rushed off after three seconds. I was left standing, my mouth wide open.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder, leading me to spin around and slap him in the face. It was Jerome.

"OW!" he yelled.

"Sorry. So sorry."

"What was that for?"

"I thought you were someone else."

"Who?"

"Uh… Ty."

"Is there something I should know about, Ray?"

"No. Nothing is going on between me and Ty."

"I saw him kiss you."

"You did?"

He nodded. I groaned, but he reassured, "Don't worry. I won't tell Mitch."

"I don't like him though! This is crazy! One minute you hate a guy, the next the guy wants to go to prom with you…"

"You're going with Mitch…"

"That's what I told him!"

"Yeah," he interrupted, "Thanks about earlier. I asked Rebecca to go with me."

"Good for you." A bit angry, I grabbed my textbooks for my next class and slammed close my locker.

"Ray, I don't want to sound rude… but do you really like Mitch? Like _really_ like him? Cause I would do anything for Benj… and if you don't like him…"

"Jerome!" I faced him with an annoyed impression, "Do not worry about it! I am _deeply and sincerely_ in love with your best friend. I understand that you care about him because you two are so close. That doesn't mean that he can't have a life of his own. For once." I glanced at him one last time and made my way to class. He just stood next to my locker, his eyes fixed on me.

Once I sat down in my seat, I checked out my surroundings. Almost no one was inside. The only person seemed to be my science teacher, Mr. Reynolds. He wrote his pre-class notes on the whiteboard.

"Rachael," he questioned and looked in my direction, "There's twenty more minutes of lunch… Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." I tried to wipe away my vanishing tears.

"Is there anything that we can talk about? Anything?"

"I'm fine." Mr. Reynolds smiled at me and then returned to writing the notes.

"I can not believe Ty did that! Kissing me although he knows I hate him!" I thought to myself as the anger burned up in my bones, "And now Jerome is questioning my loyalty to Mitch. How can this day get any worse?!"


	9. Two Strange Hunger Games

**One more day until the epic Chapter 10. You better be prepared.**

**And sorry this is a big short. I didn't want to add in any more serious drama until tomorrow.**

Later that night, Mitch texted me, "Ray, you up for some Hunger Games?"

"Sure," I replied.

I logged onto his Fridge server and joined a game. Fortunately for me, he was on the same game.

"Team?" he privately messaged me through the chat.

"Why wouldn't I?"

After the ten seconds of countdown, I rushed mid and grabbed chain boots and an apple. Disappointed, I continued with the game and followed Mitch to a safe spot. Along the way, we found two chests that were not looted. In them lied a stone sword, an iron chest plate, bread, and a wooden axe. Mitch took the sword, so I got stuck with the axe. It wasn't so bad though. Jerome uses axes. He wins… some of the time…

Ignoring that obvious fact, I noticed a familiar player skin out of the corner of my eye. I advanced to abandon Mitch, who was sorting his inventory, and followed the player. He was human, as far as I could tell, and had long dark brown hair, a white shirt, grey pants, green headphones… This was all _too_ familiar.

"Wait a minute," I thought and smirked, "Who would've known? Ty is on."

"Turn around," I typed in the chat. Ty spun and finally set his sights on me. A bit confused, I asked, "How did you figure out I was playing."

"It's a long story. We should not be in this conversation online. We're playing the Hunger Games!" he replied.

"I don't care. We need to talk."

"Come on, not right now! I'm trying to play."

"Fine. After game."

"Okay."

I ran off from him and returned to Mitch.

"I saw your chat with Ty," he messaged me, "What was that about?"

"Nothing. He wanted to say hi," I lied. It happened to be about the kiss earlier that day. I didn't have the nerve to tell Mitch.

We continued playing the game. I ended up with full iron armor and a stone sword. Mitch had full iron armor and an iron sword. We both had the same amount of food and arrows. Our bows had been enchanted with Power I. There was no way that anyone could stop us.

I was sneaking around the arena when someone attacked from behind. Stopping in my path, I turned around to see a random player attempting to take me down. Ty, about thirty blocks away, looked on with no emotion. He did not type anything into the chat. I tried to see what he was doing, just standing there. With little hesitation, I attempted to kill the player, but he was too strong. He had ultimately slain me and taken all my loot.

"Sorry," the player, who's name was too long to read, privately messaged me, "deadlox told me that I had to kill you in order to get a shout-out on his channel. I couldn't do it… but yet… I'm a huge fan of him! How could I say no!"

"It's okay," I replied, "No big deal."

"I'm a big fan of you too. I've seen you play with BajanCanadian. You're cool."

"Well, thanks."

The player had logged off. I shrugged and logged onto Skype to join Mitch. He didn't respond to my Skype call. It seemed as if he was already in one.

This time I tried calling his cell phone. No answer.

"Mitch," I thought, "Pick up your phone. I'm spectating Hunger Games, and you're still in game." A bit irritated, I called his cell phone one more time. He answered, but it didn't seem like he meant it. Confused, I didn't dare hang up.

"Dood," Mitch was in a chat with someone else, "What did I do wrong? We've been friends for… years now. We used to play Minecraft together all the time until… I moved to your school. It was me, you, Jerome, Adam, Jason, Quentin, Ryan… sometimes Preston…."

"But you're dating my crush. Not cool." Ty. What was he doing with Mitch? He continued, "It's part of the bro code. My buddies accepted it. Why didn't you?"

"I don't have any idea what you mean!"

"Mitch, you know what I'm talking about."

"Forget it! I'm calling Jerome. Maybe he knows. Cause I'm freaking _lost_." A few moments passed. From the lack of conversation, I could tell that Mitch had looked down at his phone and saw his call with me. I gasped.

"Ray…" Mitch whispered, "How long have you been listening?"

I was too afraid to say anything. My head hurt from the stress.

"Please." He started to breathe heavily.

"Two minutes," I quickly replied.

"Only two?"

"I promise."

"Ray's there?" I heard Ty interrupt.

"Uh, no," Mitch lied, "I was about to call her."

"I see… Well, I'll meet you at prom… dood." Ty slyly chuckled and quit his call with Mitch. This was the exact moment that they both died online.

"Ray," Mitch told me, "I have to go. We'll pick you up at seven tomorrow night."

"Yeah." I tried to smile, but couldn't. That whole situation was so _strange_. Ty wasn't being his normal self. Through the three years that I had known him, he hadn't been… persistent.

An hour later, I laid in bed, a comfy white sheet covering my waist and legs. The room was dark and I could see nothing except for a neon glow-up bracelet. It illuminated the stack of textbooks sitting on my desk. Nothing else was visible. I closed my eyes and embraced the next day.


	10. Prom to End All Proms Part 1

**Here it is. Chapter 10. "This is it, the apocalypse."**

6:30 pm.

"Dang it," I thought, "I have to get ready."

I found a long light blue dress in my closet. It had thin straps that went around my neck and thin silky layers. I put my hair in a small bun, my longer strand hanging down, and slid on pale white gloves that went above my elbows. My makeup was light but noticeable. I should have planned this out days ago. But I was so busy with Minecraft and dealing with other things. I was preoccupied.

Rushing to finish preparing, I received a text from Jerome, "We're here. You ready?"

I quickly responded, "Yeah. Just coming downstairs. Give me a minute." I grabbed my small blue clutch bag. Since the prom's theme turned out to be masquerade, I also carried a mask. The mask covered my whole face with a white base and gold stenciling, a magenta jewel on the forehead, and a blue feather on top.

I hurried downstairs to Jerome's car. Once I opened the back door, I noticed Jerome, in a black suit with a bow tie, and Rebecca, in a pretty light pink dress with pink gloves in the same color. Her mask was only up to her nose and she could hold it up with a stick. It had a pink feather on top instead of blue. Mitch sat in the back seat, also in a black suit but with a fancy black tie. I hopped inside the car next to Mitch.

"Hi," I declared and placed my clutch bag on my lap.

"I like your mask," Mitch leaned over and whispered.

"Thank you," I whispered back, "I like your… tie?"

"Nice try," he chuckled. I grinned and rolled my eyes.

"You guys ready to have a fun night?" Mitch asked everyone.

"You bet I am, Benj!"

"I am worried about one thing…"

"What is it?" Jerome looked at Mitch through his rear-view mirror.

He paused for a moment and smiled, "Who's gonna be king and queen?!" We all laughed because we knew that we weren't even close to winning a position.

Three minutes later, the car rolled up to the front of the school. As the rest of us exited, Jerome handed the keys to a valet person. He met back up with Rebecca, who was waiting behind for him. Mitch and I advanced to the school gates, my left hand in his right. In my other, I held my clutch bag and mask.

We easily passed through the basic security procedures and breezed through check-in. Personnel led us to the gymnasium, where the prom was located. Before even entering the large doors, we heard music coming from inside. I could tell what song it was: "Feel this Moment" by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera.

"I love this song!" Jerome announced. He burst open the doors and we gazed at the most awesome sight ever. Music played extremely loud and kids were dancing all over the place. A famous DJ controlled the board. Teachers were nowhere in sight. Only the principal, vice principal, and secretaries looked on. Bowls of fruit punch and soda lined the tables. As well as beverages, there sat tons of snacks. Jerome, licking his mouth, desperately needed those snacks.

"Come on Becca," Jerome pulled Rebecca away from us and towards the food table. She smiled, glanced at me, and shrugged. I shrugged back and giggled.

"Let's put on our masks," I told Mitch, "You remember what mine looks like, right?"

"Yeah," he quickly replied. We slid on our masks. Mitch's was plain black with painted red and orange flames coming from the far corners of his eyes. It covered his whole face, similar to mine.

"That's awesome!"

"Never mind my mask! Come and dance!" Mitch pulled me into the crowd of students. Once we reached the dance floor, the song changed. This time it was "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri. Mitch took me into his arms and we started to slow dance. The couples copied our moves.

I asked him if he wanted a glass of fruit punch and he said no. So, I made my way through the clump of kids and to the food table. Jerome was still chomping away. I pulled up my mask.

"Jerome?" I jokingly asked, "Where's Rebecca?"

He looked up at me from glaring down at the food selection. He had a nervous look on his face, "Uh… I don't know."

I rolled my eyes, took a plastic cup from the stack of cups, and poured the juice into it. With one gulp, I downed the whole cup and threw it away. I headed back to where Mitch was supposed to be. Looking through the students, I finally noticed his mask.

"Mitch," I panted, "I thought you…" He silenced me by putting his pointer finger up against my lips. He motioned for me to follow him, "Okay. Whatever."

We exited the gymnasium and eventually ended outside the school. It was in the back courtyard, so no one was around.

"This isn't funny. We should get back inside." He didn't move. "Please." I walked up to him and tried grabbing onto his suit jacket. Still not budging, I decided to ignore it, "If you're not coming inside, I am." Finally he pulled the back of my dress towards him. But the tug felt harsh and stiff. It didn't feel normal.

"We're leaving," he grumbled. Not seeming like his voice, I backed off.

"Home?"

He nodded. Trusting him in the slightest bit, he gently took my hand and led me to the valet. He motioned for one of the employees to grab a car.

"Doesn't Jerome have to drive us back?" I questioned.

Ignoring me again, he caught the keys to a car. A white Jeep pulled up to the driveway.

"Are you stealing a car?!" I backed off yet again. He fiercely shook his head. I sighed, "Good."

"I left it here yesterday," he grumbled.

"Did you drink something? Are you drunk?"

He shook his head and started the engine.

I suddenly got a call on my iPhone. As I pulled it out of my clutch bag, I recognized the caller ID: Mitch. I nervously looked down at my phone and then glanced back at the man sitting next to me in the car.

"Are you Mitch?" I slowly asked. He did not reply. I attempted to open my door, but he had already started driving and locked all of the doors. Tears rolled down my cheeks, blurring out the little makeup I had on. "Take off your mask." Again, he did not respond, so I demanded this time, "Take it off!"

The man growled and began to reveal himself. The long brown hair finally showed through and his facial features were so recognizable; I couldn't believe I fell for his trick. Ty.

**I definitely had an adrenaline rush while writing this. Hope you liked it!**


	11. Prom to End All Proms Part 2

**This will be the only chapter in another character's POV.**

Mitch POV

I thought she would find me about this time. It only takes a minute to drink fruit punch. I decided to see what she was up to. Instead of Ray, I found Jerome, sleeping on the table. I woke him up.

"Jerome!" I shook him, "Have you seen Ray?"

"Yeah…" he groaned, "She was here a minute ago… I thought she found you."

"I was with Adam and Jason, waiting for her…" I gasped and pulled out my cell phone. Rushing through my contacts, I finally found her name. I pressed call. She didn't answer.

"God dammit!" I almost broke my phone on the table.

Jerome popped up and held onto my arm to keep me from flipping the table, "Dood, what's wrong?"

"It's him…" I growled, "I should have known. I should have never kept my eye off her."

"Known what?!"

"Ty! He's after Ray!"

"My goodness. I'll grab Rebecca and then we can go…"

"No. I'm leaving… alone."

"What about me? I'm her friend too!"

"I got her into this mess! Now I need to save her from what I've done!"

"What the heck did you do?"

I paused and dared not to look at Jerome, "Ty liked Ray. A lot. And he didn't want me going to prom with her. Now he wants revenge. On me."

"That is wrong! You did nothing! How could you have known!"

I shook my head, "But something has to be done. Ty has her and… I just don't want Ray to get to hurt."

As I begun to walk outside, Jerome grabbed my arm, "Be careful."

"I promise." I stopped in my tracks, "Can I borrow your car?"

"Sure…"

I rushed to the valet and told them to pull up Jerome's car. They handed me the keys, I hopped inside, and started the engine. I attempted calling Ray again. This time someone answered, but it wasn't who I thought.

"Hello?" the voice asked. It was a female, but very familiar.

"What are you doing with Ray's phone?"

"Mitch?! My goodness guys! Should we tell him?" Faint voices were heard in the background, "Sorry. I can't tell you. It would've been fun though!"

"Fun for what?! Who are you?"

"You don't recognize me? It's Becca." I almost dropped my phone but somehow held onto it.

"Rebecca?! Aren't you supposed to be with Jerome?"

"He was too busy with those snacks. So I thought I could join my boss."

"Boss?"

"You know, Mitch."

"Ty. Now, tell me where..."

Rebecca chuckled and hung up the phone.

After a moment or so, I thought of a clever idea. I went to a website and tracked the phone, since Ray had that one app: Find my iPhone. Eventually, a location popped up. Two miles south of the school, pretty close to where I was. I put my hand on steering wheel and raced toward the location.

I came upon a large torn-down wooden warehouse. There were no cars, people walking down the street, not even another store or house anywhere close. The sky had gotten darker as I drove past the dimmed streetlights.

Ignoring the fact that I was still in my tux, I jumped out of the car and picked up a random stick from off the ground.

"I may need this," I thought to myself. With hope, I burst through the doors of the torn-down building.


	12. Prom to End All Proms Part 3

**I'm leaving for vacation in a couple days, so I won't be able to post any more updates for this story and Back Here in the Wild until I return.**

Something had knocked me out. I didn't wake up from my sleep until I spotted Ty out of the corner of my eye. I opened them to notice myself tied up in a chair, hands and feet bound by rope. Luckily, I could both breathe and speak.

"Ty," I groaned, "Why?"

He turned around and looked at me. His face didn't look at all what I expected. It seemed as if he didn't want me to be there.

"So you're awake," I heard a voice call out. Familiar, but not too recognizable. "It's nice to see you again." The owner of the voice revealed himself as Caleb, fixing the collar of his suit shirt.

"Oh… my… god…" I whispered, staring at him, "Did Ty…"

"He didn't want to do this. I thought that if you hated him, you would get back together with me. But… it wasn't Ty you were interested in. See, after Sarah told me about the new boys, I planned to team up with her to get rid of you. She couldn't make it tonight, you know, Prom Queen. I thought about who you liked. Either Mitch… or Jerome. So, I recruited Ty, against his will, to spy on you through Minecraft and make you _so_ confused that you wouldn't think about Mitch."

"I would never get back together with you, Caleb. Especially after all of this."

"Well, that sucks. I had plans for us, Ray."

"You can call me Rachael."

"And that necklace." I glanced down at my chest to see the necklace that Mitch had given me, "I knew that Brittany didn't give it to you. I even asked her. She said no. She said that you were with another guy, while you were dating me. Sarah was more than happy to kick you off the team."

"I don't care! Caleb! Let me go!"

"Ty," Caleb growled and glared over his shoulder at Ty, "Give me the bandana." Ty didn't respond. Instead, Rebecca, in her beautiful pink dress, came out from the shadows and handed Caleb the bandana.

"Rebecca?!"

"Rachael, you should've known that I was dating."

"Huh?"

"I'm with Ty."

My mouth gaped open, "Why did you say that no one would ask you?!"

"Set up." She chuckled and let Caleb put the bandana around my mouth. She picked up a light book from the table next to my chair and smacked me in the head with it.

* * *

About two minutes later, I woke up again. Ty sat in the corner of the room. Caleb and Rebecca were no where to been seen. The bandana was untied from my mouth and laid around my neck.

I glanced over in his direction, "Ty. They forced you to join them?"

"Yeah. I had no choice. They were going to do this to you anyways. I thought that if I joined, they would leave you alone… I was wrong. I'm sorry for everything I've done. Rebecca's not my girlfriend, by the way."

"Now that I know the truth… I forgive you. If you could… untie me?"

He hesitantly nodded, walked over to me, and untied my wrists, ankles, and took off the bandana.

This was when Mitch clamored into the room.

"Ray!" He ran over and hugged me. I hugged him back. Then, he noticed Ty next to me and used the stick he was holding to point at Ty's throat, "What were you going to do to her?!"

"Mitch," I interrupted, "It's not his fault. He was set up."

"What? By who?"

"Caleb and Sarah. It's a long story, but I think we should get back to the prom. Rebecca's with them too."

"I know."

"Really?"

"I tried calling your phone and Rebecca answered."

I rolled my eyes, picked up my iPhone from the other room, and Mitch led me and Ty outside to see only Jerome's car.

"They took my car!" Ty exclaimed. The white Jeep that Ty drove was now missing, "When I get my hands on them…"

"They're dead already," Mitch grumbled, "You can drive with us."

Ty nodded and hopped in the back seat of Jerome's car. I sat up front, with Mitch driving.

"What did they do to you?" Mitch asked me.

"Nothing really. They just tied me up and… Rebecca hit me with a book. But that's it. Lots of explaining."

A minute later, we reached the school again. Ty and I raced inside while Mitch argued with the valet about turning in his keys. He ended up keeping them, having to self park the car.

"Where are they?" Ty asked me.

"How would I know? You're the one that should know, working with them and all."

"Yeah… you're right."

"I'll go this way and you go towards the stage. We'll meet up in five minutes."

Ty nodded and started towards his direction. I walked in the other way.

I finally spotted Rebecca's mask and rushed to her. Spinning her to face me, she gasped.

"How did you…"

"I had help."

"Now," I heard an older voice announce. I realized that it was the principal, "I will reveal the prom king and queen. Nominees were Caleb Grant… Nathan Ridley… and… Mitchell Hughes. The winner is… Mitchell Hughes!"

Everyone started clapping insanely. I gaped my mouth open and confusedly stared at Mitch walking up the steps to the stage to receive his crown.

"How?!" Rebecca burst, "It was supposed to be me and Caleb!"

"You?" I asked.

"You honestly think that Sarah knew about this plan? Remember that one night… at Luxembourg. Mitch noticed that Caleb was making out with another girl. That was me… in a wig."

"Why?"

"To tell the truth, I hate you, Rachael."

"I can see."

"There was no way that I was going to let you remain head popular. I needed to get to the top. I was planning on taking down the populars one by one until I'm the only one left."

"That would never work, you know."

The principal continued with the awards, "The nominees for prom queen were Rebecca Ashton… Sarah Valero… and Rachael Anderson. The winner is Rachael Anderson!"

I grinned at Rebecca, "Joke's… on… you." I handed my stuff to Ty, who had met up with me, and joined Mitch onstage.

"Your prom royalty!"

Everyone cheered even louder. After a minute, everything turned back to normal. Mitch and I were forced to dance to a slow song, which we didn't mind at all.

"Well, I saved a damsel in distress from the bad guys, got the girl, and became king as well. How can this night get any better?" Mitch whispered, a smile on his face.

* * *

Rebecca and Caleb had been arrested soon after. I supposed that Ty had called the cops and explained the whole situation. He was not arrested due to being blackmailed. He met a girl and they hit it off. Jerome hung out with Mitch and I for the rest of the night.

A few hours later, the dance ended. Jerome drove us back to our respective houses. He dropped me off first, as usual.

"Goodnight Ray!" I heard Jerome and Mitch yell at the same time.

"You boys are so funny!" I replied, "I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Huh?" Mitch asked.

"We're playing Minecraft. The three of us," Jerome told him.

"Okay. And you didn't happen to tell me because?"

"Don't worry about it Mitch. It's been a long night," I said. I blew him a kiss and opened the door to the house. He caught it in the palm of his hand.

**The drama is over… for now. I'll see you all soon! Hope you liked this chapter cause it'll be the last one for a while.**


	13. Battle-Dome and a Surprise

**Here's Chapter 13!**

**I'm back! Hope you like this chapter, it may or may not be two chapters away from the finale. And s****ince I'm starting school in a few days, I might not post this story or Back into the Wild everyday. Maybe every couple days. It could be once a week for all I know. Let's see what happens.**

I was in a Skype call with Mitch, Jerome, Ty, Adam, Jason, Mat, Jordan, Ryan (xrmpx13), and Taylor (Antvenom). We were going to play Battle-dome. It would be my first time in the game. Adam and Taylor were nominated team captains. Jerome, Jordan, Ryan, and Jason got on Taylor's team. The rest of us: me, Mitch, Ty, and Mat got on Adam's team. I had known that Mitch was the king of Battle-dome, so I wasn't worried.

The two teams separated into their calls.

"Hey guys," Adam begun, "We gonna win this or not?!"

"Yep we are!" Mitch replied, "I'm going to the chickens."

"I'll do some iron mining," Ty told him.

"Making the base!" I call out.

"Aw… I wanted to do that…" Mat interrupted, "Whatever."

"I'm gonna make it on the giant hill near the edge of the dome. It'll have lava and…"

"You don't need to tell us every single detail, Ray," Ty joked. I chuckled and continued collecting blocks of gravel.

Twenty minutes later, I got a phone call. It seemed important, so I sent a private message to Mitch telling him that I would be right back. I answered the call, "Hello?"

"Is this Rachael Anderson?" a male voice replied.

"Yes, it is."

"I'm Charles Carson from the University of California Los Angeles Performing Arts Department."

"You are…?"

"Yes, and I am glad to tell you that you have been accepted into our beginning theater program. You're very lucky. Not very many people get into this group."

"Why didn't you send me a letter?"

"Our machine was broken. The head of the department told me that this would be an easier process."

"Alright. Thank you so much."

"Make sure to tell your parents. We couldn't seem to get a hold of them."

"Oh, they're on a band trip with my little brother. Probably at a show or something. But, thank you! Thank you!"

"It's my pleasure," Charles concluded, hanging up the call.

I got back onto Minecraft and noticed that my team was behind. Mat was finishing the base, as he wanted to, and Mitch, Ty, and Adam were trying to defend their obsidian from Jerome, Ryan, and Taylor. Jordan and Jason were nowhere to be seen.

"So," Mat begun, "What was so important that you had to leave?"

"Shut up," I joked, "I got accepted into college."

"Congratulations!" Mitch burst, "If I was with you right now, I would give you the biggest hug…"

"We don't have any time for this!" Mat cried, "Sky! Look out!" Adam spun around and started to battle Taylor. Jerome was on Mitch's back, so I swiped out a stone sword that I had crafted and hit him with it. He had an iron sword and full iron armor, battling me with nothing but a stone sword, so I was first to drop out.

"Dammit!" I wailed, "So close!"

"Better luck next time," Ty mentioned.

"Thanks." I grinned.

Mitch was able to extract his vengeance on Jerome with his own iron sword. Ryan killed Mat, and Taylor and Adam still battled. I noticed as Jordan crept up from below the base to mine the obsidian, "Mitch, Sky, below base!"

Mitch found Jordan first and knocked him off the tower he built with one shot of an arrow. He turned on Ryan, still in our team's base, and killed him. Taylor retreated, leaving both teams defending their obsidians. Ty was also nowhere to be seen.

"Ty," Mitch questioned, "Where are you?"

"Their base," he replied, "Mining the obsidian."

"What about Jason? Isn't he there?"

"Nope."

Surprised, I flew over to Ty's location. He was right. No one was in range of vision. All of the sudden, I spotted a name tag running towards the base, "Ty, I think Jason's back."

"Well, it's too late."

"Gee Gee!" Mitch cried, "Winners! And only Mat and Ray got killed!"

I typed in the chat, "GG!" Everyone did the same.

A few minutes later, we connected with Ryan, Taylor, Jordan, Jerome, and Jason.

"Good game guys," Ryan said.

"How the heck did Ty get to our base without us knowing?!" Taylor asked.

"I just snuck over there. You were too busy with other stuff," Ty responded.

"Lol," Jerome added, "Wooolooolooolooolooo!"

"Calm down my furry friend," Mitch smirked.

"Did you hear that Ray got accepted into college?" Adam commented.

"Adam…" I groaned, a smile appearing on my face.

"Which school is it?" Jerome questioned.

"UCLA. Their theater arts program."

"Congrats!" Through all of this excitement, I could hear someone clap. I knew it was Mitch.

"I gotta go, but, I'll see you guys later," Ty mentioned.

"Same," Jason added.

Everyone logged off of Skype, except Mitch and I.

"So, UCLA, huh?" Mitch smiled.

"Yep."

"When are you leaving?"

"What?"

"It's in California. We're in Washington."

"Oh. Saturday, after graduation."

"That's in three days! You know what, I'm gonna host a going-away party for you. Tomorrow night."

"You don't have to…"

"I will! And I'll invite all of our friends! Jerome, Adam, Ty, Jason, Mat, Jordan, Ryan, a couple other of my Minecraft friends…"

"Again you don't have to Mitch…"

"But I want to…"

"Okay, I suppose."

"See you tomorrow night?"

"Yeah." Mitch exited the call, and I logged off.

I was going to leave my boyfriend and all of my new friends. But this meant a new experience with places to go, people to see. Leaving won't be so bad… I just had to deal with the party that Mitch threw me. Goodbye won't be easy.


	14. The Party Part 1

I walked into Mitch's living room. It was draped in banners saying "Congratulations," and balloons floated everywhere. In my opinion, it seemed childish, but I wouldn't complain.

For the party, I wore a purple dress with ruffles on the top, and floral sandals. They suited me well. My hair was slightly curled but hung down by my shoulders.

Jason and Adam were the first ones to approach me.

"Hey guys." I smiled.

"Hey, Ray, what's up?" Adam said, "How you liking the party?"

"It's nice."

"Did you hear?" Jason interrupted.

"Hear what?"

"I got into the University of Pennsylvania! And Adam's with me!"

"You both got accepted there, and you're going?"

"Yeah, I got into a couple others too," Adam told me, "But Jason wanted me to join him in Pennsylvania, so I said to myself 'Why not?'"

"I'm happy for you two. Good luck. Also, it seems like you're going further than me, and this is supposed to be my going-away party."

"Well, maybe it's for everyone."

"Maybe. I don't know. I'll ask Mitch when I see him."

"Bye!" Jason waved. He found someone who I thought looked like Kermit and pulled Adam over to him. I rolled my eyes and bumped into Jerome.

"Biggums!" He wrapped his arms around me. I returned the hug.

"Not so tight!" I giggled.

"Sorry." Jerome let go of me and wiped his hands on his pants.

"Did you get accepted to any colleges?"

"Oh yeah… University of Washington."

"So you're staying local."

"Yep. And Mitch is going to Washington State, so we'll be pretty close."

"He is?" I glanced down at my sandals, slightly shuffling them.

Jerome nodded and grinned, but lost his smile when he noticed how down I was, "Ray, you okay?"

"Yeah." I sniffled, "Can I talk to you privately?"

"Sure, sure, of course," Jerome led me upstairs and into one of the rooms. I could tell it was Mitch's. He sat on the bed and motioned for me to sit next to him. I obeyed his request.

"Jerome… I'm going to miss you and Mitch… a lot."

"I know."

"I don't know if I can leave."

"It's a great opportunity, Ray. You gotta."

"What about you…"

"I'll be fine. And I will make sure I take care of Benja for you. Don't worry."

I gulped and wiped away tears, "Okay. Do you think Mitch would mind if I slept up here for a little bit?"

"I'm pretty sure he won't. Go ahead. If he says anything, I'll be there to back you up. Just you wait and see."

I smiled and hugged Jerome, "Thank you. You're the best friend that anyone could any for."

"I'm glad to be your bacca."

I glanced over at him, confused, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing. Just get some sleep. I'll be downstairs."

I nodded and laid my head on Mitch's pillow. It was soft and comfortable. I closed my eyes and felt my tears vanish one by one.

Mitch POV (Yep, another POV has returned.)

I noticed Jerome come downstairs. He had a soft smile on his face and ran over to me.

"Hey biggums," he lightly elbowed me.

"Where's Ray? Is she here yet?"

"Uh… I haven't seen her."

"Jerome…"

"I'm serious. I haven't."

"Okay," I smirked and walked away. Ty tapped me on the shoulder. I spun around to face him.

"I want to apologize formally."

"Ty, we've been over this."

"But I want to say it at least one more time, before I go off to New York."

"New York?"

"Yeah. Columbia University."

"Wow. That's good."

"So I wanted to say that I'm sorry. I hope you can forgive me."

I sighed, knowing that this was the one-hundredth time Ty had done this, but it would be the last, "I accept your apology, Ty. I hope that we can still be friends."

Ty smiled and sighed a breath of relief, "Is Ray here?"

"No. Jerome told me that he didn't see her."

"Oh okay. I'll see her later then."

As Ty exited my line of vision, I spotted Adam and Jason and pulled them aside.

"Have you seen Ray?" I asked them.

"Yeah," Jason told me, "We were talking about colleges. Speaking of colleges, where are you going?"

"University of Southern California, USC for short, why?"

"Just wondering. Adam and I are going to Pennsylvania!"

"Cool! You're gonna tell me how it is out there."

"You have to come to see."

"Sometime."

"I saw Ray with Jerome," Adam mentioned.

I glared at him, "You did?"

"He told her that you were going to Washington State. I don't know why…"

"Interesting. So she was here."

Adam nodded, trying to look for someone, most likely Jerome. I remembered Jerome coming from downstairs and lightened up. Saying my goodbyes to Adam and Jason, I crept upstairs and started to look inside the rooms, searching for Ray. Out of nowhere, something hit me on the head and knocked me out. Everything went black.

**Who knocked out Mitch? Why is Jerome all of the sudden acting strange? What is he hiding? Try to figure it out.**

**But I bet you won't… cause I'm the author of this story and I can change the plot whenever I want. Mwahahahahaha!**

**No, I'm not that evil. I have a plan, and I will stick to that plan.**


	15. The Party Part 2

**This is not the finale! You're all probably thinking right now, thank you Ray! More chapters! But not too many left, though. It's not**_** too**_** dramatic anymore.**

**And I probably will not get to at least this story for a while. I haven't even started writing Chapter 16, but I know what I'm doing. Check out Back Here in the Wild, because that will be posted more regularly. I'm sorry to all my fans on this story. It's only temporary.**

I opened my eyes. I still lied in Mitch's bed, blankets drawn over my dress. My sandals were placed nicely on the ground and my hair remained in perfect condition. I wondered who had done that. Because I remembered no blankets and my shoes being on…

Jerome entered the room. He held a cup of liquid in his hand and placed it down on the table.

"What is it?" I yawned.

"Hot chocolate. My treat," Jerome smiled.

"Thanks." I took a sip of the beverage. It smelled and tasted good. I leaned my head back onto the pillow. Jerome sat down by my feet.

"Feeling any better?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll be right back."

Jerome stood and exited the room. I unexpectedly heard a locking noise. Curious, I slowly got out of the bed and walked over to the door. I pulled on it. Locked.

"Jerome? You there? I think someone locked the door."

I tried my best to pull on the door so I could get out, but the lock was too strong. Suddenly, someone knocked.

"Ray? You okay?" It was Jerome.

"Yeah. What the heck happened?!"

"Mitch. He realized that you were in here, so he tried to beat me up. We've always been friends. And then I locked the door, for your safety. Cause you never know. He started to say rude things about you and me, so I pushed him into the closet. I had no other option. I'm sorry."

"If that's true then… I… should leave."

"No… not yet! What if he breaks out and you're on your way to your car?! He could hurt you! I don't want that to happen!"

"I honestly don't think Mitch would hurt me."

"You don't know, do you?"

"Know what?"

"He had these issues at our old school. One moment, he would be the cheerful kid you know him as. The next he would act like a vicious bully, sometimes an animal. I don't know what to do about it."

"Jerome, it's okay. Maybe if I talk to him, it would help…"

"No! It's not worth it!"

"Can I just go then?"

"Ray…" Jerome started to whimper. It sounded like he was crying, "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay. I'll stay. As long as you tell the others I'm up here."

"Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

I faintly smiled and backed off the door. I trusted Jerome. I knew he wouldn't lie to me. He and Mitch were best friends. They knew everything about each other. Or at least that's what I thought. Maybe Jerome was lying. Maybe he wanted Mitch and I to break up because he was jealous… Maybe he lied about Mitch's college...

My head all of the sudden started to hurt really bad. I could feel my heart beat faster and faster. With no idea what was happening, I sat on the bed and held on tightly to Mitch's pillow. I begun to black out, and no was around to help.

Jerome POV

I checked on Mitch through the peephole of the closet door. He was tied up, his mouth bound, nervously looking around for anyone who could have done something like that. I sighed and whispered, "I'm sorry. I can't…" Walking back over to Mitch's room with Ray inside, I noticed it was a little too silent. I knocked on the door. "Ray?" I asked, "Ray?"

No answer. I quickly opened the door and saw her lying on the bed, unconscious.

I raced back to the closet, opened the door and hurried as fast as I could to untie Mitch.

"I'm sorry," I told him, stuttering, "I'm so sorry. Sorry. Sorry."

"It was you?!" Mitch burst, standing up from the chair, "Jerome, how could you?!"

"I liked her, okay! Now I need your help, fast!"

"What's wrong?"

"Ray's passed out and I don't know what to do."

Mitch straightened up and rushed out of the closet, into his room, to see Ray out cold.

"We've gotta get her to a hospital!" I shouted.

"You think so?" Mitch asked sarcastically, trying not to look at me.

"I know, you're furious at me. I'm sorry. But we have to work together to help Ray."

"Fine." Mitch picked up Ray and carried her downstairs and to his car. Everyone else was watching in silence. Ty was the first one to talk to me.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"Ray's passed out. I don't know why."

I ran after Mitch and jumped into the front seat of his car. He sat in the driver's seat, Ray's body lying in the back.

We reached the hospital within five minutes, and rushed inside. Ray was handed off to the doctors and into the emergency room. I sighed and sat down in the waiting room. Mitch took the seat next to me.

"Why are you sitting next to me?" I questioned.

"Cause you're my best friend."

"But… aren't you angry that I locked you in a closet and told your girlfriend that you were going to Washington State? I also made up a lie that you had "animal-like behavior. I bet you hate me now."

"Well, we'll see."


	16. Broken Hearts (Literally)

**Well, change of plans. Here is another chapter!**

I woke up in a hospital bed. My heart pumped slower than at Mitch's. I glanced over to my left to see a plastic bag filled with red blood. An incision was placed into my arm to transfer the blood. Barely opening my eyes, I leaned back down on the pillow and tried to look out of the hospital room window. I could see Mitch and Jerome. It seemed like they were arguing with a doctor. The doctor stormed away from the conversation, leaving the boys to bicker amongst themselves. Mitch eventually shrugged and entered my room, carefully closing the door behind him. He crept up to the bed and pulled up a chair.

"Ray, are you awake? I'm not supposed to be in here, but I want to," he told me, a fake smile on his face.

"Yeah, I'm up..." I grumbled. I tried to smile, but it ended up looking like a expression of disgust.

"What happened back at my place? Do you remember?"

"Not really..."

"Maybe you'll figure it out when you feel better." He paused before continuing, "Jerome and I got into a fight. I think I should tell you the honest truth. He had a crush on you, so he wanted to keep you away from me. At the party, he knocked me out and tied me up in a closet. When you passed out, he freed me to help you. I don't have other personalities. It's just me, Mitch."

"Good..." I coughed, like I was choking on a piece of food.

The same doctor from a few minutes ago walked into the room. He saw Mitch and turned bright red. "Mr. Hughes. You are not allowed in here. Ms. Anderson is resting."

"But…" Mitch interrupted.

"Mr. Hughes. Ms. Anderson has a serious issue that the doctors need to take care of immediately, so if you please…"

"What's the issue? I'm her boyfriend. I have a right to know."

"Can I tell him?" I asked in a hoarse voice.

"No, I'm sorry. If anyone is going to explain, it would be me."

"Can you, please?"

He glanced at me through his rectangular-shaped glasses with a sympathetic look and sighed, "Alright. Ms. Anderson has CAD, also known as coronary artery disease. It is very deadly. She has had problems with anginas and atherosclerosis **(for those of you who don't know they are chest pains and the buildup of cholesterol and plaque in the blood stream)** for all of her life, but hasn't seen any doctors in years. We may have to keep her here until… who knows when."

"She got accepted in college! She has a future at theater and singing! She has me!"

"All of that cannot help her in this situation. I'm sorry." The doctor tilted his chin towards the floor, while remaining a tight grip on his clipboard. He paced out of the room, his chin still towards his feet.

"Mitch," I quietly said. Mitch leaned in and kissed me.

"What is it?"

"I need to tell you something… before I leave…"

"No! I won't let you! Not if it's the last thing I do!"

"My parents… and my brother… they aren't on a band trip…"

"Then where are they?"

"December 9, 2008… Phoenix, Arizona… Two parents sit in the front seat, their young children in the back… One is thirteen, the other is eleven… The other side of town… A man gets in his car from a day with his friends… He is around thirty nine years old… Anthony Weaver."

"Who's Anthony Weaver."

"Was… Professor at Arizona State University…"

"Oh…"

"December 9, 2008… Sandstorm… Midnight… Two kids… Two parents… Anthony Weaver… Boom…"

"Car crash?"

I nodded hesitantly.

"What does this have to do with you…" He passed and stared into my eyes with a sign of pure shock, "You were one of the kids."

"Anthony was a family friend..."

"Your parents died?"

"And Sammy… My brother… I barely survived…"

"Ray, I had no idea."

"I didn't want to tell anyone…"

"Who have you been living with?"

"Myself… I got the money from my mother's inheritance… She was the daughter of a rich CEO…"

"Why did you not tell me?"

"I told you… I wanted to keep it a secret… Caleb didn't know… Sarah didn't know… Jerome doesn't know… Neither does Ty, Adam, or Jason… you especially…"

"Why?"

"Anthony's son has wanted to sue my family for years… He's around our age… That's why I moved here…"

"What about CAD?"

"My father had it… He survived about three heart attacks before the accident…"

"Wow."

"Leopold, Danielle, Rachael and Sammy Anderson…"

My eyes blacked out once again, and I laid down of the now comfortable hospital room bed. The last thing I saw were Mitch's brown eyes swelling up with tears as he held tightly onto my hand.

**It was so sad writing this. I used names close to my own family's so it hurt even more. Don't ask me why, I just did. *P.S. None of this is true. It is all made-up.* But I hope you liked it.**


	17. Finale

**It's not over until I say it's over.**

**I have a song for this chapter, because it is the finale: In Your Eyes (Glee Cast Version). At the end, change it to Cups by Anna Kendrick.**

Mitch POV

"You'll have only fifteen minutes to say your goodbyes."

"Why does it have to be so soon? And out of the blue! She's only eighteen! Her birthday was a few weeks ago!"

"I'm very sorry. This issue has not been taken care of in years. There's nothing we can do. Her heart will fail out in exactly fifteen minutes. Please… do not let her know."

"Why would I not?! She has a right to know of her own death!"

"Mr. Hughes…"

"I'm sorry, but this is something that I have a right to do!"

I walked inside of Ray's room with a balloon and a bouquet of flowers that Jerome had picked up at the store. I placed them next to her bed. Her eyes still remained closed, but she looked very peaceful. Smiling, I stayed sitting in the chair beside her.

Jerome opened the door and crept inside. He pulled up a chair next to me.

"Is she awake?" Jerome whispered.

"I am now," Ray slightly opened her eyes and looked at Jerome and I. She smiled.

"You should get some sleep…" I told her and held onto her hand.

"Thank you for the flowers and balloons."

"You're welcome."

"I know…"

"Know what?" Jerome asked.

"I only have fifteen minutes. I want to spend those fifteen minutes with the best guys in my life."

"And who would that be?" I jokingly questioned, grinning sarcastically.

"You and Jerome, duh."

"Wanna play Minecraft?" Jerome suggested.

"Yeah," she replied, "Sure. I probably won't be as good as I used to, but I'll try."

"Okay, biggums." Jerome pulled Ray's laptop out of his bag and placed it on her lap. He pulled out his own as well. I stared over at him, "What? I'm prepared! I got yours too!" Jerome finished by giving my laptop to me.

"Uh… Jerome…" I begun.

"Boys, I have fifteen minutes!" Ray screamed, "Are you gonna sit around like babies or make sure these are the best moments of my life?"

Jerome and I were dead silent. We did not dare to argue with her. She breathed heavily from the shouting, so I motioned for her to calm down. Ray smiled and nodded, "So are we playing?"

"Yep. We gonna win dem Hunger Deans!"

We started to play the game. Jerome was killed off spawn, leaving me and Ray to abandon him and continue.

Fourteen minutes later, we were running short on food supplies, and there were no chests in sight. Ray's health had gone down to about one hunger bar, with half of her hearts. Jerome left the room for the moment to grab us drinks from the vending machine.

"Mitch," she privately messaged me in the chat, "I won't make it. I'm useless."

"What do you mean?" I replied.

"My health is getting lower. Maybe you should sacrifice me to win. I think the other six players are teamed, so they won't fight."

"No, you're my teammate. I can't."

"You're more than my teammate. You're my soulmate. I love you Mitch. Goodbye."

"I love you too… What?!" I looked up and glanced over to Ray in the bed next to me. Her eyes were closed and the heart monitor had fallen flat. I stiffed my position, felt warm tears roll down my eyes, and held tightly onto Ray's hand, "Ray… I love you…"

This was when Jerome entered the room. He saw Ray and I, and ran over to us, "I'm so sorry, biggums."

"I will always love you." Before I left her side, I noticed the _Rachael_ necklace strapped around her neck. The same one that I bought her for her birthday.

Rachael POV

Here I am. I told you in the beginning of my story that I was 20 years old, and I am. I have been in heaven for about two years. I've heard that Mitch has never gotten over me but tries his best to keep in contact with his Minecraft friends, especially Jerome. Jerome has recently gotten engaged to a girl he met online. They are perfect for each other. Ty, Adam, and Jason still remain the trio they had always been and added more people to their group. They call the group "Team Crafted." Mitch and Jerome are part of it as well. Sarah, Caleb, and Rebecca are spending the next thirty years of their lives in prison, as far as I know. Most of the people I knew came to my funeral: Mitch, Jerome, Ty, Adam, Jason, Mat, Jordan, the other members of Team Crafted, and students who were in school with me.

I hadn't even graduated.

* * *

_Mitch and his friend slowly advanced to my desk. They sat in the ones next to me._

_"Thanks," I told him, still not looking directly at him._

_"This is Jerome. He was my buddy at my old school. We transferred together."_

_"Good for you."_

_"Can I get your name?"_

_"Rachael."_

_"Pretty name."_

_"Thank you," I kept my eyes on the chalkboard._

_"You're welcome," Mitch replied._

* * *

_"Happy birthday," Mitch remarked. He pulled out a small velvet box from his jean pocket and gave it to me. I opened the box to find a silver necklace with my name in-scripted on it._

_"Wow. Mitch, it's beautiful."_

_"Do you want to put it on?"_

_"Sure." I took off my scarf and stuffed it into my backpack. He helped me carefully secure the necklace from the box and put it around my neck. He latched the hook on the back. I smiled._

_"How do you like it?"_

_"I don't know what to say. But… why? I was being so rude to you the other day."_

_"Rachael, I figured out it was you last night. I promise that I won't tell anyone, for the sake of your reputation."_

_"So, that means… you like me?"_

_Mitch shrugged, "You're so… beautiful and popular. And you already have a boyfriend. I thought that getting you this and an anonymous donation to Caleb would help."_

_"That was you? With the banner and the blow horns?"_

_He nodded. Without thought, I hugged him._

_"Thank you," I reminded him, "It means a lot."_

* * *

_"Are you okay?" I asked him._

_"Why are you helping me?"_

_"What he did was wrong. You didn't deserve to be treated that way."_

_"Thanks."_

* * *

_"Rachael," Mitch bravely recited, standing up in front of me, "Will you go to prom with me?" The rest of the class looked on from behind us._

_"Uh…" I panicked, "I don't know. I mean… yes. Yes, I will go to prom with you Mitch." I stood up and kissed him. Mitch even took this as a surprise, but he liked it. I could tell._

* * *

_"Hey Ray," he said after hooking up his call with mine._

_"There's something I have to tell you. Mitch already knows. Will you promise not to tell anyone?"_

_"In Benja we trust, in Bacca we must."_

* * *

_Mitch sat in the back seat, also in a black suit but with a fancy black tie. I hopped inside the car next to Mitch._

_"Hi," I declared and placed my clutch bag on my lap._

_"I like your mask," Mitch leaned over and whispered._

_"Thank you," I whispered back, "I like your… tie?"_

_"Nice try," he chuckled. I grinned and rolled my eyes._

_"You guys ready to have a fun night?" Mitch asked everyone._

_"You bet I am, Benj!"_

* * *

_Everyone cheered even louder. After a minute, everything turned back to normal. Mitch and I were forced to dance to a slow song, which we didn't mind at all._

_"Well, I saved a damsel in distress from the bad guys, got the girl, and became king as well. How can this night get any better?" Mitch whispered, a smile on his face._

* * *

_"Is this Rachael Anderson?" a male voice replied._

_"Yes, it is."_

_"I'm Charles Carson from the University of California Los Angeles Performing Arts Department."_

_"You are…?"_

_"Yes, and I am glad to tell you that you have been accepted into our beginning theater program. You're very lucky. Not very many people get into this group."_

* * *

_"Jerome… I'm going to miss you and Mitch… a lot."_

_"I know."_

_"I don't know if I can leave."_

_"It's a great opportunity, Ray. You gotta."_

_"What about you…"_

_"I'll be fine. And I will make sure I take care of Benja for you. Don't worry."_

_I gulped and wiped away tears, "Okay. Do you think Mitch would mind if I slept up here for a little bit?"_

_"I'm pretty sure he won't. Go ahead. If he says anything, I'll be there to back you up. Just you wait and see."_

_I smiled and hugged Jerome, "Thank you. You're the best friend that anyone could any for."_

_"I'm glad to be your bacca."_

* * *

And I know what you're thinking right now. Why am I dead? Why did my author end the story like this? I know why. Because as soon as you imagine things to be alright, they end up going all wrong. It's the story of life. Make sure if you have an emotional or physical issue that needs immediate help, please let someone you know informed. You don't want to end up in my situation, right?

Goodbye, friends. I love you all. Make sure that Mitch knows that I'm here in heaven, and I'm okay. Tell him to not worry. I'm still wearing my necklace.

* * *

_I started softly singing along, getting louder once towards the middle._

_"I've got my ticket I got my ticket for the long way 'round. Two bottles of whiskey for the way. And I sure would like some sweet company. And I'm leaving tomorrow, wha do ya say? When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my hair. You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. I've got my ticket for the long way 'round. The one with the prettiest of views. It's got mountains, it's got rivers, it's got sights to give you shivers. But it sure would be prettier with you." Jerome and Mitch joined in with singing as well. "When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my walk. You're gonna miss me by my talk, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my hair. You're gonna miss me everywhere, oh. You're sure gonna miss me when I'm gone. When I'm gone. When I'm gone. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone. You're gonna miss me by my walk. You're gonna miss me by my talk, oh. You're gonna miss me when I'm gone."_

* * *

**It's a very sad ending, and some of you may not like how it ended. But it's the cycle of life, you need to realize that. And although this is fan fiction, there needs to be a touch of reality. The nerdy guy can't always get the girl, and the popular girl can't stay popular for the rest of her life._ No more Mary Sues._**

**Goodbye for now, and see you next chapter for an update!**

**-Ray**


	18. Thanks and New Story!

Thanks for reading Living on a Few Memories! I hope you liked all of it, although the ending was unexpected.

I wanted to end this story in order to start a new series: It's a crossover between one of my favorite shows of all time (Supernatural) and Minecraft.

For those of you who have seen the show, I will go over the summary of the story.

Sam and Dean get transported into Minecraft by Gabriel. They meet a Minecraftian who has also been transported from years ago, and he or she must deal with evil squids. The squids seem to becoming more powerful, leading Sam and Dean to realize that the squids are being possessed by demonic presences. Will they be able to stop the oncoming war between the Minecraftians and the squids? Does Lucifer or Zachariah have anything to do with this?

If there's a certain Minecrafter you would like me to portray as the leader of the rebellion (it does not have to be Sky), just review or PM me. This story will be very interactive. Most of the time, I will post polls to have you help me out with the story. I may or may not take OC's for this new one.

I honestly thank you so much! If you weren't favoriting, following, reviewing, even looking and taking the time to read my stories, I wouldn't have continued any of them! Maybe I would have anyways… I love me some writing! :P Your support means the world to me!


	19. Sequel Time!

There is a sequel to this story that has been posted! It is called Living on a Few Wishes! To popular demand, Ray and Mitch are back for another round of shenanigans, and this time you can be part of it! All you gotta do is submit an OC! Simple as that! See all of your rayminers over at the sequel!

OC Form:

Name:

Gender:

Age:

Clothing/Appearance:

Personality:

Past:

Pairing (optional):

Rival (optional):

Likes:

Dislikes:

Talent (optional):

Other notes (optional):


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